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Not too long ago my OCZ 1gb USB key was in my shirt pocket when I decided to do the wash. While pulling out the wet clothes it was sitting at the bottom of the washer. 4-letter S-word, 4-letter S-word, 4-letter S-word.
Lucky SOB I was as everything was copied off, the key reformatted, and back in use. I think it should be added to PC Magazine's list of Top 10 Washable Tech Products
Here's another interesting site I stumbled upon. Giveaway of the day (link: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/). They essentially give away quality software for free each day. On occasion there may be a utility that you will find useful , but best of all it's free! But act fast as it only allows you to download the software during each 24hrs.
If you're a Canadian and you either have a bank account or know somebody who does, be sure to check out the Bank of Canada's search page for unclaimed bank balances. If you have opened a bank account and have no activity for 10 years, the account and its balance do not get lost ... they get transferred to the Bank of Canada.
Type in your name, type in your parents names. Heck, type in your neighbour's name and let them know if they have any outstanding bank accounts!
The Boys from Buf is an ethnic Macedonian band that plays across Ontario, New York and Michigan. Ask any Macedonian if they've heard of "The Boys" and they are sure to answer yes. They are even known in Australia!
They are my favourite Macedonian band so much in fact I had to pay special tribute to them by writing the following piece (to which I wrote for a Boys from Buf fanclub group) :
YOU KNOW YOU LISTEN TO TOO MUCH BOYS FROM BUF WHEN ...
- You call up Z103.5 and tell them to "pump" the "Bufksoto" on the "pump it or dump it radio show"
- Your cell phone ringer is the clarinet solo at the beginning of the Bufskoto.
- You're cruising the Danforth in your mother's Oldsmobile playing "Imeto Makedonsko" with the windows down hoping to cause some shit.
- You walk into a dance and the Boys from Buf shout your name like Norm from Cheers.
- You have the same white jacket and pink shirt that Chris wore for the 1979 album Boys From Buf.
- You think Mitsotakis is still president of Greece because "Pesna za Mitsotakis" is one of your favourite songs.
- Every time you get invited to a wedding the first thing you think is, "I hope they get Boys from Buf"
- The only time you wish you could get married again is so that you can get "Boys from Buf" to play at your wedding, and dance on the tapan.
- You wonder why "Tommy on guitar" plays every other Boys from Buf function.
... and finally the #10 reason why you know you listen to too much Boys from Buf is ...
10. Every function the Boys from Buf plays at you end up buying another CD because you don't know which CD player you left your last copy of Boys from Buf in.
Green energy sources are popping up all over the landscape. Colorado mountains are planning on using water run-off from the Rockies during summer months for power. Giant wind turbines are off the coast of Europe in the sea generating power from the wind current.
There is even a gigantic farm of solar panels somewhere in Spain harnessing the suns rays (link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15698812/). Which leads me to ask the question, "Why is it necessary to build unsightly farms of reflective panels when all we could do is reproduce the same experiment we used to perform as kids with a magnifying glass, the sun, and a poor little ant?"
Why not use a giant reflective lens either positioned on a high tower or up in the hills to concentrate the sun's rays into a single solar panel? If a magnifying glass can fry an ant, why can't it mutiply the effectiveness of a single panel? Perhaps the cost of a giant lens would be too costly.
And to go one step further, create a mirrored-surface parabolic dish (such as the Bell ExpressVu or DirecTv satellite dishes) with some sort of tennis-ball size "solar panel" to collect all that energy. Combine the satellite dish and solar panel into a single unit and distribute it across North America.
Here's a site that will amuse you and can be considered a great site to lose your train of thought when you need a break : Knuttz.net.
There are lots of interesting galleries of pictures and you can spend hours, if not days just looking. One of my favourites is the Sumela Monastery. Most people wonder how the pyramids were built ... that seems simple compared to climbing an almost vertical mountain with building materials.
I was given the task of creating a DVD presentation for an organization. Most of the material I had was originally available on Youtube and a few files in .FLV format (Flash Video Player). My first task was retrieve these files.
That is where Zamzar comes in. After some googling for free utilities that ripped videos from YouTube, I found Zamzar. What a delight this website was to use. Open a browser window on Youtube, copy the URL, and paste it into the file box on the Zamzar homepage. Receive an email notification within an hour, and download a link. Easy enough.
I was using Ulead for my PC DVD production, and iLife on the Apple ... mainly to see which product had a more appropriate theme for me to use. After some experimenting with iLife I found the need to use Zamzar once again ... to convert my PC-based files in .mpg over to the Apple-based Quicktime .mov files. Again easy enough.
Next was finding a player to view my .flv files. Geez, was that a pain in the bazooka. Zamzar came in handy again. It was able to convert the .flv files effortlessly.
